Dental parameter quantification with semi-automatized computational technology for the analysis of human bitemarks

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study objective was to determine dental parameters that characterize human bitemarks and dentitions for biter identification using semi-automatized technology. Sixty-five dental casts and eighteen bitemark photographs were used. Casts were scanned by a 3D laser scanner to generate comparison overlays, and bitemarks were digitally photographed following ABFO guidelines. A semi-automatized technique was used to calculate the inter-canine distance, rotation, eccentricity, angular position, and distance to the arch of each tooth mark. A matrix was created of all possible combinations of dental casts and bitemarks. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to evaluate the accuracy of this identification procedure. Among the 1045 comparisons performed, the highest area under the ROC curve (AUC) was obtained for the Euclidean distance of lower teeth rotation (AUC = 0.73). This semi-automatized method to measure lower tooth rotation may be useful to identify individuals responsible for bitemarks and may be applicable in forensic cases.